Micromanipulation and Encapsulation of Atomically Thin Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+xfor the Assembly of Atomically Clean van der Waals Heterostructures

The van der Waals (vdW) cuprate Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+x (BSCCO) offers opportunities for engineering exotic low-dimensional hybrid superconducting states by fabricating vdW heterostructures combining BSCCO with other layered materials. However, the extreme air sensitivity of BSCCO and its strong adhesion to the SiO₂ substrate on which single crystals are exfoliated, pose significant challenges in fabricating atomically clean devices and integrating BSCCO into complex vdW heterostructures. In this work, we demonstrate the micromanipulation of BSCCO samples to create atomically thin BSCCO encapsulated in hBN. We exfoliate BSCCO on SiO₂/Si substrates with patterned trenches that allow the suspension of BSCCO flakes over etched SiO₂ over the length of microns down to monolayer thickness. We demonstrate that these trenches facilitate more reliable flake pick-up using a dry cold PDMS technique over the suspended regions. Furthermore, this technique enables hBN-assisted transfer of BSCCO, allowing hBN encapsulation of thin BSCCO. We will discuss magnetotransport studies in atomically thin BSCCO encapsulated by hBN crystals.